Sarah and Steve's Wedding at Exbury Gardens

Sarah and Steve's wedding was the wettest wedding I'd done in a long time, but nothing was dampening their spirits on their big day. There was happiness and laughter all day long.. and of course a lot of love! The day began in Beaulieu in a gorgeous B&B where the girls were getting ready and it was very exciting for me, because at long last I got to see THE dress that Sarah had made herself - yes, can you believe it - she's SO talented! It was splendid, so detailed and suited her perfectly. She got a jewellery designer friend to make the metal work centrepiece - I've never seen anything like it - gorgeous!

Sarah's friend also made the headpiece - stunning!

Best friend and bridesmaid Lucy helping Sarah into her creation.

Sarah even made the butterfly (you can see it's made from the same material).

Sarah's mum did the flowers, I love how they're very country garden.

Sarah and her mum.

Guests arriving in the rain. The comon perception is that rain on your wedding day is good luck. Apparently it comes from several cultures mainly from the Hindu with the idea that a wet knot is harder to untie. Since marriage is often referred to as tying the knot. Rain was also a symbol of fertility to agricultural societies, since rain restored and maintained the wellness of crops. Crops were peoples main source of stability and income so it was thought to guarentee a long happy marriage!

Best man Bill and Steve's mum.

Steve was so happy and looking forward to seeing his bride!

Sarah was early for the ceremony, normally I would take the opportunity to get some great shots of her and her friends/bridesmaid but it was really tipping it down - so she stayed in the car. I was getting very wet at this point! Luckily my cameras have good weather resistant seals on them!

Beaming smiles through the rain - I love it!

The wedding ceremony took place in the art gallery in the grounds of the very beautiful Exbury Gardens - I loved the fact they left all the paintings on the walls - very interesting and pretty!

This is Zanna Sarah's bestwoman and cousin doing a reading.

Zanna's sister Liz.

Don't you just adore the Hunters (and the matching Hunter socks!)? Sarah certainly needed these today!

Doesn't Sarah look stunning? I think she has an air of pre-raphaelite about her.

After the ceremony and a few pictures, we had a fabulous cream tea, with all the food you could think of - amazing cheeses, dinky sandwiches, scones, cakes you name it, all handmade by friends.

That carrot cake was lush!

Sarah had collected the beautiful tea sets in the months leading up to the wedding and each guest was allowed to take a piece home as a favour/memento of the day - what a wonderful idea!

Then with a break in the weather, we decided to go and make use of the tremendous gardens at Exbury and get some romantic shots - Sarah and Steve had been round the week before and scouted out all the best locations (there's 200 acres of gardens). These photos were very important to Sarah and Steve so they allowed nearly 3 hours out of their day for this part!

Bluebell woods are always amazing at Exbury.

Wisteria is always pretty good too (understatement!)

Then we headed to the mini steam train "the Wedding Belle" for a trip round the gardens with all the guests. Of course we had to have some fizz first!

The train driver's wife decorated the train with flowers! Lovely!

This is called the hankerchief tree - look closely and you'll see why!

Click on this one below to see full size...

Then everyone headed to the Mortimer Arms near Romsey for the evening partying! Speeches then lots of dancing!

The speeches were great - Bill here

Just look at the love!

Thank you for such an amazing wedding guys - I thoroughly enjoyed myself!